German Airport, Cruise Ship in Sweden Turned Into Refugee Centers

In Europe, people are getting creative to find temporary shelter for refugees.

As more refugees flee Syria and head for Europe, some countries are turning to unconventional means to handle the influx. Specifically? Relics of the transportation industry: Sweden's Migration Board has rented a luxury cruise ship called the Ocean Gala and docked it off of the coast of northern Swedish town Härnösand as a temporary home for refugees. Once the world's largest cruise liner, the 623-foot ship costs £65,000 ($93,000) per day for the government to rent. The pool has been covered up and the casino closed, but there is still a theater that guests are able to use. And although a ship is an unusual choice for longer-term lodgings, the Migration Board says it needed a quick way to house the refugees, many of whom were staying in tents and makeshift outdoor shelters as the weather dipped below zero. There are a total of 1,790 people currently living on board the Ocean Gala.

The Ocean Gala isn't the only place that has been converted into refugee housing. Berlin's Tempelhof Airport, which ceased operations in 2008, is set to become Germany's largest shelter, with capacity to house some 7,000 people. (There are currently 800 refugees already living there as the space is converted and expanded.) The former hangars are being divided up into family and group units, complete with bunk beds, toilets, and showers. The project is being spearheaded by Michael Elias, who himself emigrated to Germany from Lebanon as a child. 476,000 people, the highest for a single country, have applied for asylum in Germany as of the end of 2015, out of a total of nearly 1.4 billion across all of Europe. But they won't all be moving into Tempelhof—the airport is intended to be temporary housing for people who then settle into permanent homes in Germany or elsewhere.